#partridge or helen kimball and i dont think that reflects poorly on any of them. anyway just my opinion.

[alliluyevas]

I mentioned Zina Huntington earlier while talking about the graves of Brigham Young's wives, but I wanted to make a separate post for her, in part because she is buried separately, and buried in a very unique setting that reflects the unique marital circumstances of her life.

Born as Zina Diantha Huntington in New York, she converted to Mormonism along with her parents and siblings when she was fourteen. Throughout her life, Zina was known for the zeal of her religious faith, including her gift with speaking in tongues. Shortly after her family's arrival in Nauvoo when she was eighteen, she and her mother both became severely ill with malaria. Her mother died, but Zina recovered in Joseph Smith's house, being taken care of by Emma and the Smiths' daughter Julia. They became close. Zina began a courtship with a young Mormon man named Henry Jacobs, but at the same time Joseph Smith began teaching her about plural marriage in secret. He proposed to her three times, but she continued rejecting him, and accepted Henry's proposal instead. Joseph agreed to officiate the marriage but then cancelled last-minute, so they got another officiant. Several months later, Zina, now expecting her first child with Henry and continuing to be pressured by her prophet, began feeling guilty and afraid she had disregarded God's will. She was sealed in secret to Joseph Smith by the end of the year. It's unclear whether Henry knew about this at the time. Several of Joseph Smith's plural wives also had legal husbands (this is referred to as a polyandrous marriage), though this practice fell out of favor once polygamy became open doctrine in Utah.

After Joseph's assassination, Zina, like several of his other plural widows, was sealed to him again with Brigham Young standing as proxy, and to Brigham Young for time. By this time, Henry knew about the sealing, because he attended it, but he may have thought this was a marriage in name only. She continued to live with him, had a second child, and left Nauvoo for Utah with him. Later, when he was sent back East on a mission (the latest of several he had been ordered to serve, leaving him frequently absent from Zina), she began living with Brigham Young. Henry, heartbroken after returning from his mission to find himself estranged from his family, wrote several letters over the next few years begging her to take him back and to be reunited with his sons, but it's unclear what or if she responded.

Historically, we can only guess at Zina's feelings about Henry or why she chose to leave him for Brigham Young. Later in life, she referred to her first marriage as unhappy, but in the same discussion she deliberately misrepresented the timeline to make it seem like she was briefly married to him before Joseph Smith, rather than a longer marriage overlapping with her polygamous ones. She may have felt ashamed of or self-conscious about the polyandrous aspect of her marriages, and she generally seems to have been very unwilling to discuss the matter. We also don't know what element religious coercion played in her choices here. She did continue to mark Henry's birthday in her diary throughout her life, with some private affection. Finally, she chose to be buried in the Jacobs family plot near him, alongside their two shared sons and her daughter with Brigham Young, though they had not lived together for decades. Defining her family, as with many polygamist women, may have been both complicated and emotionally thorny for Zina. I, personally, am also inclined to sympathize with Henry. Though we don't know all the emotional circumstances of the breakup of their marriage, his letters about missing his children are really upsetting, and I don't think he deserved to lose his family the way he did. (He did re-establish a relationship with his sons when they were older.)

Zina with her children, Zebulon and Chariton Jacobs and Zina Young.

Zina and Henry Jacobs later in life; Zina with her daughter and namesake granddaughter.

Aside from the rather sad, messy story of her marriages and family, Zina had a very full life, one of the most well-known and widely respected Mormon women of her era. I mentioned earlier that she was known for her spiritual gifts--she was also a renowned nurse and midwife, and combined both skills by bestowing blessings for healing to sick or pregnant women. (For those of you who don't know a lot about Mormon theology, this is interesting in part because female-to-female blessings and spiritual practice was pretty widespread in 19th century Utah but is discouraged in the modern church, in favor of male priesthood authority). Zina seems to have been both a caring person and a natural leader, generally well-loved by her sister-wives and with a broad circle of friends. She was also active in Utah's suffrage movement and served as counselor to Relief Society President Eliza Snow, her friend and sister-wife. It was remarked that they complemented each other well, because Eliza was a cerebral intellectual and Zina was much warmer and more caring. After Eliza died in 1887, Zina succeeded her as Relief Society President and served in that capacity until her own death.

Here, Zina (far left) is photographed with friends Bathsheba Bigler Smith, Emily Partridge Young, and Eliza Snow. Emily and Eliza were both Zina’s sister-wives twice over, having been married to Joseph Smith and then Brigham Young. (Note: I’m using both maiden and married names for most women but only Snow for Eliza because that was what she went by even after her marriage, while other contemporary women usually switched to their married surname).

I think I'd like to leave this by remarking on the quote chosen for Zina's gravestone: "Charity Never Faileth". I think it really encapsulates her life. Though she definitely experienced a lot of complications and struggles, some of which we'll never know the whole story of, I think Zina also found a lot of meaning and joy in both communal bonds with other women and public service. I also think that since she only had three children and they all outlived her, she may have avoided by accident of fate some of the hardship and tragedy that many of her contemporaries experienced with constant childbearing and repeated child loss. Her life seems like it was less frankly bleak than some of the other women in her circle I've written about here, and I'm happy for her about that, though she went through enough as it is. Back to the quote: it reminded me a little bit of the one chosen for Clara Decker Young, "blessed are the peacemakers". These quotes that very much aligns with 19th century Mormon expectations of feminine attributes, but they're also deeply compelling.